What’s Eating my Catfish?

[Muskles]

I'm starting to think Ole Fishndude might have released that otter into your pond in an attempt to force you to buy his 200# of catfish he's selling, to restock it. You might be onto something there fnd.

[Big pig]

I used to worry about nutrias ruining my tank dams
And beavers killing the trees along the creek

But at least they didn’t eat my fish !

[Fishndude]

I'm starting to think Ole Fishndude might have released that otter into your pond in an attempt to force you to buy his 200# of catfish he's selling, to restock it. You might be onto something there fnd.

You could be on to something

[Slaunch]

Another vote for Otter. I’ve seen them in my buddy’s pond outside of Crockett. It’s kind of weird to see them in a 3 acre pond deep in the woods of Houston County, but they are out there for sure.

[gonehuntin]

Never had otters hang around more than a few days and its always perch they eat. I never restocked catfish back from the last drought. Before the drought I always had a floater or 2 daily. I bought a 5 horse outboard and ran it daily to mix up the water. I never lost another fish when I did this.

[HogHunter34]

I feed pretty much daily & never see a floater
They are very aggressive when feeding which tells me they are not struggling for oxygen
I set the camera this afternoon along the view of my dam
I’ll update if it’s conclusive
What I research says they are heavy eaters relative to size
Y’all think now they have a food source they’ll return daily? Or give it a week at least?

[HogHunter34]

Sounds like a dam otter then....

I see what you did there

[Gerald G]

I read that an otter eats his weight in fish (food) every day.

[Muskles]

With the small bodies of water near your place, if it's found a food source, we should see it regularly. I'm still on the fence that it's an otter. I've had several things (oxygen, cranes/herons/king fishers, water moccasins, coons, buzzards) kill or pull my catfish to the bank. Hopefully the cam will give us an idea of what's causing it. If we can figure it out, I've probably got something to "fix" it.

[dosrobles]

Low oxygen level, big catfish die first

I lost about 30 catfish to this.

[HogHunter34]

With the small bodies of water near your place, if it's found a food source, we should see it regularly. I'm still on the fence that it's an otter. I've had several things (oxygen, cranes/herons/king fishers, water moccasins, coons, buzzards) kill or pull my catfish to the bank. Hopefully the cam will give us an idea of what's causing it. If we can figure it out, I've probably got something to "fix" it.

You’ll be the first I call once I identify the culprit

[Brute Killer]

Might have a homeless Cajun living in the woods nearby. They usually eat the heads too

I agree

[Backwoods101]

Plan is to mount my camera this afternoon viewing the dam portion
Stay tuned

The otter be good!


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[McClain]

How big of a pond? With temps rising, if it has too many fish in it low oxygen will kill the large cats first and maybe it was just found by a coon on the edge??

It might be Ich (Ichthyophthirius), a disease that often affects catfish, especially during early summer as water temps warm up. Fish will have lesions or white spots on their body. Then the dead fish are often scavenged as said.

[npe001]

We "had" an otter that was eating ours...